Lodgers in London. By Adelaide Eden Phillpotts. (Thorn- ton Butterworth.
7s. 6d. net.)-It is always interesting when the child of a distinguished man follows in his or her father's footsteps, and in this feminist age the pronoun seems as fre- quently feminine as masculine. Miss Adelaide Eden Phillpotts has chosen a theme which, though fairly hard-worked recently, always possesses a certain interest. The book describes the inhabitants of a superior London lodging-house in Bloomsbury, and the landlady, Mrs. Nodden, and her step-sister, Miss Wick, all play their part in the quiet drama which the author unfolds. The lodgers range from a Jesuit postulant to a dancer in music- halls and an ex-confectioner. The least successful figure is the young Jesuit, whom the author depicts on rather conven- tional lines as the good young man tempted by the dancer. Much the most original personage is the ex-confectioner, Mr. Tibby, who is described by a partial friend as a " confectioner by trade, but an artist by nature." He solaces his retirement by making figures in plaster on the same lines as the beautiful white sugar images of his professional life. Unfortunately, however, a self-satisfied and semi-cultivated acquaintance introduces him to the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. Thereupon follows the tragedy of disillusionment, for Mr. Tibby awakens to the fact that his own work can lay no claim to real beauty.
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